The Kite

My father built kites for a living. Not a lucrative business, but he loved it. Our small apartment was always full of bamboo sticks, colorful paper, and the smell of glue.\n\nEvery Sunday, we'd fly a new kite from the rooftop. He'd hold the string, eyes fixed on the sky, while the kite danced against the clouds.\n\n"See how it fights the wind?" he'd say. "The wind wants to pull it down, but the kite knows: if it fights, it flies."\n\nI didn't understand then. But I do now.\n\nLife is the wind that tries to pull us down. But if we fight, we fly.\n\nMy father passed away ten years ago. I still have one of his kites. I never fly it — it's too precious. But I look at it sometimes, and I remember what he taught me.\n\nFight the wind. Keep flying.